


First Kiss of the Season

by Xanadian



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Drama, F/M, Firelord Zuko (Avatar), Fluff and Angst, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Post-Canon, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-20
Updated: 2020-09-20
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:07:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,831
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26561131
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Xanadian/pseuds/Xanadian
Summary: For Zuko, kissing Mai in the rain is a fleeting, beautiful escape from his reality.
Relationships: Mai/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 17
Kudos: 112





	First Kiss of the Season

Not that he hadn’t been feeling stifled all day, at some point after dinner (that he had forced himself to consume) Zuko had genuinely started wondering if the air had gotten heavier inside the castle.

He needed to get out. The necessity for a midnight getaway had been mounting for days now. Enabled by the steady constricting of his chest, he had dug through his private trunk of paraphernalia that no one had access to, and pulled out his Blue Spirit mask. With his dual swords on his back, he fled the palace through the underground tunnel from his chamber.

 _Not a single guard alerted_ , he thought. If he wanted, he could leave now and never return.

An hour later he found himself panting in a wheat field in the center of a neatly cut circle which was the diameter of the reach of his swords. The result of twenty minutes of continuous aggressive sword swinging. He drank in mouthfuls of air, wondering how far from the correct conclusion (which was that the Fire Lord had been cutting wheat stalks under the full moon to cure his pent up anxiety) the farmers would be the next morning when they awoke to this strange occurrence.

He dropped his head with an audible sigh.

He didn’t want to think about the farmers. He didn’t want to think about the grain shortages of this year. He didn’t want to think about the taxes that he had to either demand or forgive; his nation splitting down the center because of it. This was what he was running away from. His disguise, his getaway all a desperate attempt to escape his thoughts, but they had still chased him out here. The mark of an Impostor Fire Lord was not hidden easily it seemed.

He lifted his swords for a second round of aggressive swinging that would leave his tired muscles screaming in pain. Physical agony was always easier to deal with. A sharp ‘plop’ on the crown of his head distracted him, quickly followed by a slew of thick cold drops that fell forth from the sky. He pulled the cloth covering his mouth down to his chin, closing his eyes and looking heavenward.

The first shower of the season.

He stood, feeling the mud below his feet get slimy as the water made its way through the thin layers of his clothes. The cooling drizzle flowed down his back, his shoulders, his neck, his arms, washing away the last of the energy that he had managed to glean at the end of his grueling day. He knew he should leave now, return to the castle, and rest. But he wasn’t ready to go back yet. And _rest_ was not something he could find at the castle anyway. He needed to pick a dry shelter somewhere or force his feet to head back.

But he didn’t want to make any more decisions. For the rest of his life. He just wanted someone to tell him what to do and he would follow.

He trudged ahead.

* * *

Mai had stepped out of her room the moment she had heard the pattering outside. She had bounded quietly down the steps to go look at the rain pouring down in her backyard, the sky overcast in dark grey clouds. Her fingers followed the raindrops that raced down the glass panels of the doors that led into her garden, that was now slowly turning into a shallow pond. At least the Fire Nation weather would start to get a little less blistering now.

She yawned, having already gotten over the rain and with her arms folded across her chest, turned around on her heel. As she crossed the hall, peeking down the corridor that led towards her parents’ chamber wondering if the rain had woken them up, she heard knocking on the large front doors. 

She froze. Starting at the door, she wondered if she had imagined the disturbance. But then it came again, and while it was gentle, it startled her.

Why would anyone be at their door so late? She gathered herself, tiptoeing over to the heavy wooden entrance, and opened the little eye-slit to take a look at their “guest” keeping a sharp view on the functional sword that hung on the wall beside her.

She was surprised to see familiar eyes looking blankly back at her. Hastily, she worked through the multiple locks on her door.

Zuko stood in front of her, dripping wet in his Blue Spirit attire. For a split second, seeing him so late at her doorstep, in _that_ get-up had her worried about what he might have done. Then remembering he liked to don this when stepping out of the castle alone sometimes, she relaxed. But only a little. 

‘What are you doing here?’ she hissed urgently, eyebrows scrunched in bewilderment. 

He just stood at his spot, shoulders uncharacteristically slumped, looking tiredly at her in response. Somehow, she got the feeling he had walked up to her house in a daze, himself not aware of why he stood in front of her now.

Mai frantically took a look behind him at the empty roads outside, ‘Zuko, what if someone sees you? My parents are at home and –

‘Don’t send me away please,’ he requested quietly. Defeatedly.

She sighed, her eyes scanning his face as she pulled him into the house. They treaded lightly over to the stairs (Mai taking a second to glance down the corridor that led into her parents’ room again) and into the safety of her private chamber. 

As she led him into her room, she noticed Zuko was leaving a nice wet trail behind him all the way from the door.

‘Why are you sopping wet?’ she demanded, still in a lowered volume.

‘Rain, ’ he responded.

 _Right_.

She deposited him in her room and ran back out to the laundry area, bringing back with her a clean, dry tunic and a cotton cloth to dry his hair.

He quietly changed into the tunic that she handed him, sitting down on the edge of her bed sans explanation for this out-of-the-ordinary visit. He didn’t speak, nor look at her.

Mai couldn't help but notice how lifeless his actions seemed; like he was only doing them because he was wired to.

She sighed again, moving to stand between his parted knees and covering his head in the cotton cloth. Her hands moved expertly, having been trained daily in the art of hair-drying on her own excessively long tresses.

‘Isn’t your address tomorrow?’ she asked, mostly to get the ball rolling. She knew his first proper public address as the Fire Lord was tomorrow.

He nodded. He was so awfully quiet, it was unsettling. 

‘You really want to be coughing and sneezing at your big Fire Lord speech, oh wise one?’ she drawled sarcastically.

Her question remained unanswered with the only sound coming from the shuffling of the cloth on his wet hair. She felt his warm hands toying around absentmindedly with the belt on her night robe. After several minutes, he finally answered as though he had just re-entered his body from wherever else he had drifted off to.

She couldn’t see it, but she almost heard him rolling his eyes, ‘Mai, I’m a Firebender.’

Then to demonstrate this fact he squeezed a drop of water from his hair and raised his hand up to her. The little drop on his palm sizzled, then evaporated as he heated up his hand to the optimum temperature.

‘How kind of you to use this marvellous ability sooner and not drip all over my floor and bed and…’ she looked offendedly at her hands labouring over his hair, pulling them away as she abandoned the cloth still covering his head, 'for letting me dry your hair when you don’t even need it!’

He reached out and took her hand by her wrist, placing it back on his head, ‘I liked you doing that.’

His words didn’t come out like he might usually say them – coy and boyish and simpering. It sounded like a plea.

She resumed the drying.

A few minutes later when she was satisfied with her work, she moved the towel away unveiling her boyfriend. He sat looking down at his hands, fingers knotted together, elbows on his knees. Still no eye- contact. Still no explanation.

With her fingers, she slicked back his damp hair, the tracks through which her nails scratched soothingly on his scalp highlighted with the ridges her fingers left in his long, straight locks.

‘Why were you outside?’ she asked, continuing to run her fingers the way she knew he enjoyed.

‘Blade practice. In the fields. Needed to get out for some time,’ came the soft reply.

 _Blade practice past midnight, in the rain?_ She couldn’t help the slight wave of worry that rose in her chest.

She moved her hands down to his face, tilting him up to look at her. ‘What’s wrong?’ she finally asked.

Her words were like a trigger. She watched as his stormy, golden eyes welled up. He squeezed them shut, burying his face in the warm satin of her robes and fiercely hugging her torso. She instinctively wrapped an arm around his shoulder, the other guarding him with a palm over his scarred ear.

‘Zuko…’ she said softly; a little alarmed. 

‘I can’t do this Mai,’ he sniffled, ‘I don’t understand any of this. I’m too young, I-I don’t know what the people want. I don’t know what policies and laws work. I don’t understand these complicated things. No one wants me at the throne, I should just leave!’

‘That’s not true,’ she shook her head, sweeping her hand over his hair, feeling the heat of his stuttering breath on her stomach even through the layers of her robes.

‘It is,’ he insisted. ‘The Fire Sages don’t care for me; they see me as a child and yet no one will take a moment to explain anything. I’ve never done these things before I don’t…I don’t know what’s right and what’s wrong. I don’t want to call uncle back but I need him. I need mom. I’m not a Fire Lord ...I'm-I’m a loser.’ She heard his voice break and with it, her heart did too.

She moved, sitting down beside him. Tears that marred his sunken face were wiped away with loving strokes of her thumbs, ‘You’re just very stressed, Zuko. I understand that there’s so much you have to do, but I promise that you’re doing a brilliant job. Father told me after last week’s gathering that his noble associates were astonished at how quickly you were catching on!’ She gently squeezed his pallid cheeks, ‘You’re not a loser.’

With Uncle moving to Ba Sing Se, she was the only person in the Capital he trusted completely and he hung on to her every word for hope. It got so tiring to pretend that he was doing okay for the rest of the world. 

‘And your first address is going to be great!’ she continued, dropping her hands into his. ‘After tomorrow, tons of people will come forward to assist you. People from the general public, who trust you and need your help. Those who know that a young, dynamic, _compassionate_ Fire Lord like you can usher in the era of peace. The support of the people is what matters doesn’t it? Who cares about these toffy-nosed Fire Sages?’ Her tone was standoffish, yet her eyes flitted across his own for the slightest feedback. 

He wiped his face on the back of his hand, nodding. She was right. 

‘I know we’ve done it a hundred times, but if you want, I can come to the palace early tomorrow morning, and we can go over your speech once more?’ she asked.

How had she known without him even realising that the address was the main source of his anxiety tonight? He nodded once more, immediately feeling the release in his chest at the thought of seeing Mai once before his speech, ‘Yeah.’

‘And then afterwards can we go to that apple orchard please? I’ve been asking for weeks,’ she whined. 

‘Done,’ Zuko smiled at her, and she rolled her eyes smiling back. Her short, often smug grins were handed out liberally, but the warm, genuine curve of her lips was like their little secret. His eyes traced the intriguing contours of her face where she hid these beautiful glimpses of herself and he wondered if he should just say it; say to her that he loved her. In a way he didn’t know was possible for him; the result of her affection that he didn’t think he deserved.

‘What?’ she chuckled curiously, tilting her head.

‘Nothing,’ he shook his head. Perhaps things like the declaration of love deserved a slightly more glamorous treatment than a darkened room and dank weather.

The sudden, majestic thundering outside almost made him jump. The rain that had slowed down to a soft drizzle for the past half-hour, roared again.

He stood up excitedly, bringing Mai along with him to her balcony. The first shower that brought in irrigation and the indication of the end of blistering summers was traditionally a celebratory moment in the Fire Nation.

Standing on the edge, beneath the dry shelter of her room, they watched the mini storm in her balcony, their visibility not extending very far beyond it. Small specks of water lightly fell on their amused faces.

With an arm over her shoulder, Zuko questioned, his voice reflecting a casual, yet curious tone, ‘if you could choose to have any kind of Bending which one would you pick?’

‘Waterbending,’ Mai replied plainly and rather quickly.

‘Really? I thought you would say Fire,’ he tried to not sound too offended.

‘Think about it. No one would expect me to be a waterbender, right? So, I would hide it from everyone but then every time I cried, I would use the waterbending to make my tears flow upwards on my face, and then people would think I’m a witch or something,’ she replied.

‘What. Why…’ Zuko screwed his face in bemused disbelief, ‘ _That’s_ why you would pick waterbending?’ He shook his head as Mai shrugged nonchalantly, ‘How do you even come up with…’

He let himself trail off as a mischievous idea entered his head. He smirked inwardly, ‘Why don’t you go familiarise yourself with your element then traitor!’

He shoved Mai toward the balcony. She gasped in surprise and her eyes widened thinking she would find herself in the middle of rain, but Zuko pulled her back toward himself just in time. She looked at him in shock as he grinned back impishly, satisfied by the little scare he had given her.

Her face hardened, ‘Since _you’re_ the Firebender with magical drying ability…’ she said, and without waiting for a response, pushed Zuko over the raised edge of the floor of her room with surprising force and into the balcony under the full force of the rain.

He looked up stunned, attacked by the torrent of raindrops. Mai raised her eyebrows tauntingly, arms crossed over her chest in self-importance. He traded his shock for glee, spreading out his arms and walking over to her as she scrambled to retreat, ‘No. Zuko stop!’

She squealed as he enveloped her in his sopping arms, shaking the drops from his hair onto her. ‘I’m going to fall ill!’ she yelled as he lifted her off her feet and in two large strides planted her in the center of the balcony right under the relentless slew of raindrops. She quit squirming in his grasp as every inch of her was drenched in cold water, staring up with a deadpan face as Zuko beamed back at her.

‘Don’t worry, I’ll warm you up,’ he responded, using his hands to move the hair that was plastered to the sides of her face and dipping down to kiss her.

Their lips met in the warmest, cosiest feeling he had come to know. Even in the rain, shivering against the chilling wind he could feel the golden, gushing warmth in his chest that grew as her lips responded passionately to his. It was like molten sunlight that bubbled when she reached on her toes and wrapped her arms around his neck. It flowed from his heart, brightening every crevice of his tired, lifeless body.

It was easy to forget how good their kisses felt. Like a reset. He felt safe. He felt heard. With the thundering of the storm in sync with the steady rise of his own heartbeat, it felt like nature herself was joining them in their little celebration of togetherness. She smiled against his lips and he was certain she was unaware of the effect it could have on his poor heart.

He nuzzled her closer, hands cupping her jaw, holding steadfastly on to the only thing that was absolutely perfect in his life.


End file.
